Researchers developed a new mechanism for gap opening in strained graphene

posted Jun 8, 2011, 4:28 AM by Hatef Sadeghi

Researchers from the IBM TJ Watson Research Center and the Universities of Madrid and Nijmegen developed a new mechanism for gap opening in strained graphene via electrostatic gates. The new method also have real applications.

The researchers say that when the pseudomagnetic fields created by long-wavelength deformations are appropriately coupled with an electric scalar potential, a significant gap can emerge due to the formation of a Haldane state. At present, all known ways of gap opening in graphene have a detrimental effect on the electron mobility.

The team also considers setups where local or global gap can be tunable through simple electrostatic gates. They hope that their proposals can be applied to the various existing strategies for strain engineering graphene. "If realized, this will open a new and, in our view, a very promising route to graphene-based electronics" they say.